NOTES AND QUERIES. 189 



also on the longitudinal folds or pleats of skin on sides of throat, giving 

 the latter a marbled appearance. To the edges and under sides of 

 both flippers and flukes were attached a large number of the parasitic 

 Coronula diadermia, like a gigantic Balanus, and so firmly fastened or 

 embedded in the skin that both that and the blubber had to be cut before 

 the shells could be detached. The long, narrow, straight flippers, with 

 scarcely a perceptible curve, were notched or scalloped along the edges, as 

 was also the posterior margin of the flukes. The head was broad and flat; 

 the upper jaw very flat and depressed between the lower jaw-bones, which 

 rose above it at each side where the mouth was close. On the upper jaw 

 were three rows of tubercles ; one of seven in the centre running from the 

 end of the snout to the blow-holes, 6 to 7£ inches asunder in the row, and 

 varying from a half to an inch in height ; and one of eleven on each side 

 just above the lips, almost reaching to the eyes, but in two places for about 

 six or eight inches the side rows of tubercles were double. The baleen, as 

 well as I could judge without measuring, appeared to be from twelve to 

 fifteen inches in length, black in colour, and fringed at the ends with coarse 

 greyish brown hairs. The small dorsal fin, placed very far back, was between 

 six and seven inches in height. The dimensions, carefully taken with a 

 string, were as follows : — Length from fork of tail to dorsal fin, 10 ft. 3 in. : 

 dorsal fin to end of snout, 18 ft. 10 in. ; total length, following curve of back, 

 29 ft. 1 in. ; from end of snout to blow-holes, 4 ft. 7 in. ; breadth of flukes, 

 9 ft. ; flippers from humerus, 9 ft. 2 in. This whale has never before been 

 recorded as a visitor to the coast of Ireland, and is evidently very rare in 

 the British Seas. Prof. Flower, in his recent book on Mammals, mentions 

 one taken at Newcastle in September, 1829, another in the estuary of the 

 Dee in 1863, and a third at the mouth of the Tay in 1883-4 ; thus only 

 three examples have been previously recorded to have visited the British 

 Islands. It may not be out of place here to express my obligations to 

 Mr. Alfred Heneage Cocks for his able paper on the " Finwhale Fishery 

 on the coast of Finmark" (Zool. 1884), and to acknowledge that it was 

 owing to my having read his very interesting notes that I was enabled to 

 recognise this whale when it came ashore. — Robert Warren (Moyview, 

 Ballina). 



BIRDS. 



Blackbird marked like Ring Ouzel. — About a year ago I reported 

 to you a variety of Blackbird I used to see every day here during the 

 nesting and breeding time — a well-plumaged male with a grey-drab 

 crescent-shaped patch at the upper part of the breast near the throat. 

 This bird is still here; I see it frequently on the lawn. It is now of a 

 still more jet-black plumage, and the grey patch is very well defined and 

 distinct. This is evidently not a case of a pied Blackbird, such as we 

 often get in very severe winters (cases of this kind, I believe, never continue 



